RWBY Relationship Week 3: The Re-Lationing
by OldSchoolVinny
Summary: A collection of one-shots I wrote for tumblr's 3rd "RWBY Relationship Week", where all the pairings are randomly chosen. The stories here range in word count and genre. Enjoy. (Pairings in order: Sun/Glynda, Junior/Ruby, Ozpin/Ruby, Emerald/Nora, Roman/Penny, Yang/Ren, Penny/Velvet)
1. The Wrong Person (Sun&Glynda)

**There are some people you should never try to piss off, like a huntress who turns out to be your headmaster.**

Genre: Humor

#

Tonight was a busy night for Glynda Goodwitch. She was already preparing the orientation for transfer students coming to Beacon for the start of the second semester, and now she was called in to investigate an incident that took place at the docks. It seems the White Fang were attempting to rob dust brought in from Atlas, but were stopped by a group of amateur hunters. Two of the hunters were kept for interrogation; Ozpin was talking to Blake while Goodwitch would be talking to a boy named Sun Wukong.

As soon as Goodwitch entered the interrogation room, she could tell he was going to be an annoyance. Sun leaned back in his chair, eating a banana and putting his feet on the table while staring at the ceiling, as if he didn't think any of this was a big deal.

"Ahem," grunted Goodwitch. Sun leaned his head up and finally noticed Goodwitch.

"Sup?" greeted Sun. "So am I allowed to go now or what?"

"Not until we have a proper interrogation."

"I don't know what more I can tell you that I already didn't tell the police."

"I have that transcript with me," said Goodwitch, looking at her paperwork. "You were at the docks during the time of the incident because you quote 'just happened to stumble upon a crime scene by complete luck.' Why were you at the docks in the first place, Mr. Wukong?"

"Can't a man enjoy strolling through the city for no particular reason?"

"Most people I know don't stroll through docks."

"What can I say then? I'm not like most people."

"I already know. I've done a background check on you Mr. Wukong. You're a huntsman in training from Vacuo transferring to Beacon Academy, correct?"

"Right on the nose!" said Sun, taking his feet off the table and sitting upright. "I also like long walks on the beach and the occasional back rub."

"This is not a joke Mr. Wukong!" said Goodwitch, slamming her crop on the table.

"Easy there ma'am; all that stress can cause wrinkles, and I don't think you need more than you already have."

"Mr. Wukong! Tell me right now why you were at the docks at the same time the White Fang arrived!"

"Cause I heard about the dust robberies happening around town and thought to myself, 'the docks have loads of dust in them; I bet that place would get attacked next.'"

"And so you decided to take matters into your own hands instead of reporting this information?"

"Well, as a huntsman I felt-"

"Huntsman in training," corrected Goodwitch.

"I needed to take action myself. Besides, people around here don't seem to take kindly to us Faunus. You heard the way the cops talked about me while I was being held here?"

"That's because you snuck here illegally on a transport ship, and then while being brought here, you threw a banana peel at one of the detectives and said one of them looked like a cross between a..." Goodwitch looked over the transcript of what Sun said and was disgusted with herself. "I'm not even going to repeat what you said."

"Okay, MAYBE I was a bit out of line. Point is, I didn't do anything wrong, and thanks to me a great robbery was prevented."

"You really believe you deserve to be thanked for what you did?"

"Well I didn't see any other huntsmen or huntresses saving the day, did you?"

Goodwitch wanted to scream her head off at Sun for his remarks, but took a deep breath to calm herself down.

"Okay," said Goodwitch. "I believe we're done here Mr. Wukong. You're free to go. Just remember that next time, you leave situations like this to the professionals."

"About time!" said Sun, standing up and heading out the door. "Oh, and word of advice? You need to relax and learn to let go more often."

Before Goodwitch can respond, Sun already left. Goodwitch bent her crop so hard she nearly broke it into two.

#

It was now a week after the docks incident. The ships flying in from Haven Academy were arriving at Beacon. On one of the ships was Team SSSN minus their leader, who decided to head to Vale and check out the scenery beforehand. Knowing how outlandish their leader can be at times, they were hoping he didn't get himself into trouble. They arrived at Beacon and took a look around the school.

"So this is the famous Beacon academy," said Scarlet. "I have to say a lot of these kids don't look that tough."

"Looks can be deceiving," replied Sage. "Remember, only the best of the best can get into this school."

"They might not look tough, but they certainly look good," said Neptune, looking towards a pair of cute girls walking past him.

"If you're done looking at girls you have no chance of hooking up with," said Scarlet, "we need to find Sun and head to orientation."

As if on cue, a banana peel suddenly landed on Scarlet's head. Team SSSN looked up to see Sun laying in a tree.

"Sup losers?" said Sun. "How was the trip?"

"Hello Sun," said Scarlet, removing the peel off his head. "Glad to see we don't have to bail you out of jail."

"You really thought I would wind up in jail?"

"Considering you snuck into Vale and like to greet people via throwing fruit whilst proclaiming 'sup losers,'" explained Sage, "I would say finding you in jail would not be surprising."

"I'll have you know that the worst thing to happen was a mere interrogation for performing heroic duties," said Sun.

"Wait, what?" said Neptune. "What happened?"

"White Fang attacked the docks, I came in to save the day. No big deal."

"That sounds like a very big deal. Anyway, let's get to orientation."

The team headed to the outdoor auditorium where the transfer students would be greeted by the headmasters of Beacon. First they listened to a speech given by Professor Ozpin; or rather the others students were listening while Sun was yawning and not paying attention.

"Sun, knock it off," whispered Neptune. "You're going to get us in trouble."

"But this is boring," whispered Sun. "At least my interrogator was good looking."

"What did she look like?"

"Bright blonde hair, green eyes, pair of glasses...I have to say she looked pretty hot. Kind of sounded like an old windbag though."

"And now Professor Goodwitch will explain the details of your orientation exam," said Ozpin, leaving the stage.

As soon as Goodwitch took the stage, Sun had his jaw wide open and was terrified. Upon looking at Goodwitch, Neptune noticed the similarities between her and the woman Sun was mentioning.

"Hey Sun," whispered Neptune, "she kind of looks like the woman you were talking about."

"That's because she is," whispered Sun. Putting the two pieces together, Neptune was now just as frightened. The old windbag Sun had pissed off turned out to be the Vice Headmaster of Beacon.

After Goodwitch was finished with her speech, Ozpin took the stage again to give one more speech. Once he was finished, Sun and Neptune quickly tried to run off before they would be noticed. They couldn't even run one foot before being greeted by Professor Goodwitch.

"Hello Team SSSN," said Goodwitch. Sun and Neptune turned to Goodwitch and smiled.

"Hello Professor Goodwitch," said Sun, smiling as wide he could. "That sure was a great speech you gave up there. I wish I could hear it all over again!"

"Me too!" quickly chimed Neptune. "I mean I'm sure I would love anything you would say Professor!"

"I'm glad you enjoyed it," said Goodwitch. "I came over to tell you I already have your orientation assignment."

"Fantastic!" said Sun. "As leader of Team SSSN, I would just like to say as huntsmen in training, we are willing and ready to perform any duties you have for us! There's no task we can't handle, right guys?"

"Of course!" said Neptune.

"Yeah," said Sage and Scarlet, who looked at each other and wondered what was wrong with their teammates.

"That's good," said Goodwitch, "because this task is of the utmost importance, and failing to get this done can result in serious consequences. Are you sure you will be able to handle it?"

"No problem!" said Sun.

#

"You don't have to worry about me you said," said Scarlet. "I won't get into any trouble you said."

"Come on Scarlet," said Sun. "It's not like we got kicked out of Beacon."

"I'd rather be kicked out then be doing this!"

Team SSSN were in the streets of Vale, cleaning up the mess made after the city held a huge party to celebrate the beginning of the Vytal festival. There was garbage all over the place, ranging from half-eaten food to paper and plastic utensils to God only knows. Team SSSN were assigned the task of cleaning up the streets before the start of the next day of festival activities.

"Quit complaining you guys," said Neptune. "The less complaining we do, the quicker we can get this done."

"Is it too late to ask to transfer teams?" asked Scarlet.

"Look on the bright side," said Sun. "At least our lives aren't at risk."

"I'm not so sure about that," said Sage, picking up a dead rat found next to some littered trash. The rest of the team nearly gagged at the sight of it. As Team SSSN continued their menial task, Goodwitch came by to check on them.

"I'd speed things up if I were you," said Goodwitch. "You still have fourteen more blocks to cover."

"Miss Goodwitch," said Sun, "you don't really expect us to get this all done in one day do you?"

"I'm sorry, who was it that said there wasn't any task you couldn't handle?"

"But Professor, we're just amateur huntsmen! Shouldn't this be done by the professionals?"

"Maybe you should have thought of that before you opened your big mouth. Now get back to work!"

Sun sighed in defeat. "Yes, Miss Goodwitch."

"By the way Sun, a word of advice."

"What is it?"

Professor Goodwitch walked up to Sun and gave a sinister smile. "Next time, be careful who you piss off. You just might be mouthing off to the wrong person."

Goodwitch left as Team SSSN continued their torturous community service.


	2. Code 86 (Junior&Ruby)

**She knew the job wasn't going to be easy. She just didn't realize how hard it would be.**

Genre: Drama

#

Yang's 18th birthday was coming up next month, and Ruby really wanted to get her something special; the only problem was getting anything special usually required a certain amount of money Ruby never had. She decided to start looking for a part-time job to help get the money she needed. She spent the whole day looking for places that were hiring, and all of them rejected her for one reason or another. The final place she was going to check out was a club that was looking for a bartender.

Upon entering the club, she was mesmerized by the flashing lights and loud techno music. The place looked like a lot of fun; too bad most of the people looked like the seedy type. She was already getting weird looks from some of the older men in the club. She pulled her hood up, kept her head down and immediately went towards the bar.

"Um, excuse me?" said Ruby, trying to get the bartender's attention. The bartender looked over to Ruby and wondered what a kid was doing in a place like this.

"Aren't you a little young to be in this club, little red riding hood?" asked the bartender.

"Actually, I'm here for the bartender position?"

"Do you even have experience?"

"Well no, but..."

The bartender took another look at Ruby. Ruby was nervous as to what the bartender was thinking.

"Wait a minute," said the bartender. "Aren't you blondie's sister?"

"Blondie?" asked Ruby. "You mean Yang? You know her?"

"Know her? She comes here all the time...and usually causes trouble!"

"You must be Junior."

"Only my friends call me Junior. To you, the name's Mr. Xiong."

"Sorry sir," said Ruby. "I mean, Mr. Xiong! Sir!"

"So tell me why you think I should hire you, considering the fact you're related to blondie."

"Please Mr. Xiong, I really need this job. My sister's birthday is coming up and I really want to buy her something nice but I'm poorer than dirt and no one else was hiring and-"

"All right, I don't need your life story! I tell you what, let's have a test. Come behind the bar."

Ruby got behind the bar as Junior called over his bouncers, the Malachite twins, to sit at the bar. Junior handed Ruby a list of drink recipes and sat with the twins.

"The key to being a good bartender is to get the drinks done right and done fast," said Junior. "Every little mistake costs me money, and every second longer you take means less profit for me. Understood?"

"Yes sir," said Ruby. "So, what can I get you?"

"A White Rose with no ice," said Melanie.

"Gingersnap, dirty," said Miltia.

"Dirty?" asked Ruby.

"It means add olive juice," said Junior. "You're going to need to know a lot of terms working at the bar. I'll have a Strawberry Sunrise. Now get to it."

As Ruby went to making the drinks, the twins turned to Junior.

"You're seriously thinking of hiring her?" asked Melanie.

"Yeah Junior," said Miltia. "You could at least hire someone prettier."

"Well if you two actually bothered to pick up the slack around here," remarked Junior, "I wouldn't need to hire a bartender in the first place. Besides, she still needs to finish-"

"Finished!" said Ruby, suddenly presenting the three with their drinks. The three were surprised to see she was already done.

"That was fast," said Junior. "A little too fast."

"I'm a quick person."

"Well you certainly passed the time test. Now for the taste test."

The three took sips of their drinks, expecting it to be completely half-assed and nasty. Instead, they were shocked that the drinks were prepared exactly the way they were supposed to be.

"This is...actually good," remarked Melanie.

"Not just good," said Miltia. "This actually tastes better than the way you make it."

"As much as I hate to say it," said Junior, "you're right."

"So do I get the job?" asked Ruby, sounding excited.

"Consider yourself hired," said Junior. "You start tomorrow night."

"Thank you Junior!" said Ruby, shaking Junior's hand.

"It's Mr. Xiong," he replied.

#

Ruby arrived at the club the next night. Ruby was already liking the job simply from her cool looking uniform; a black vest over a white dress shirt with a red bowtie. When she arrived at the club, the place was already jam packed. Ruby wasted no time heading straight for the bar.

"Right on time little red," said Junior. "Ready to get to work?"

"Yes sir Mr. Xiong!" said Ruby, saluting Junior.

"Then get to work," said Junior, leaving the bar to be tended by Ruby alone.

"Wait, I'm going to do this by myself?"

"For a while, yes. But it shouldn't be a problem for you, should it?"

Ruby wanted to protest having to deal with a big workload right away, especially on her first night, but decided to keep her comments to herself. If Junior caught her complaining about the job, odds are he would fire her without a second thought.

"No problem Mr. Xiong," said Ruby.

"Good," said Junior. "Call me only if it's a Code 86."

"Code 86?"

"It means if a customer is becoming a threat. The girls and I will take care of it."

Junior left the bar to go work in the back. The moment he left, Ruby immediately got called over for orders. Despite a fully packed bar, thanks largely in part to her semblance, Ruby was able to get everyone's drinks quickly.

Ruby was a few hours into her shift, and not once did she even get a minute to take a breather. As exhausted as Ruby was feeling, the more drinks she served, the more her tip jar began to fill up, and seeing the sight of that jar fill up gave Ruby the energy to keep going. As she was working, Junior appeared from the back.

"Hey little red," said Junior, "I've got an emergency assignment for you."

Another test, thought Ruby. She knew she needed to complete this in order to look good in front of the boss.

"What's the matter sir?" asked Ruby.

"Seems the women's restroom is quite a mess. Mind cleaning it up while I take over?"

"Not a problem sir," said Ruby, although in her mind, it was a big problem. She hated cleaning duty, especially if it involved restrooms.

Ruby grabbed the janitorial equipment and headed to the restroom. The moment she entered she wanted to gag; a huge section of the floor was covered in vomit, giving the room a nasty scent of fruit and alcohol.

"It smells worse than Zwei in here," said Ruby, grabbing a mop and cleaning up the puke. As she was cleaning up the messy floors, she can overhear two girls in one of the stalls heavily making out. Ruby was hoping making out was the only thing they were doing.

After cleaning up the mess, Ruby returned the equipment and reported back to Junior.

"The mess has been taken care of sir," said Ruby.

"Good job little red," said Junior. "No time to waste; back to work you go."

Junior left the bar again as Ruby was swamped with more orders. As the night went on, the place had even more people cramped into it, leaving Ruby no time to take a break. By the time the witching hour arrived, the customers began going crazy. Some of the drunk ones tried hitting on Ruby, in which Ruby had to smile and wave off despite some of the nasty things they were saying. A few began to fight each other at the bar, which in turn caused drinks to be spilled across the bar top. Thankfully the girls were quick to respond and kick the troublesome customers out, but it still left Ruby the task to clean up their messes.

Ruby was so busy going back and forth making everyone's drinks she completely lost track of time, so it came as a sudden shock when the time struck 3am, meaning the place was now closed. Junior came behind the bar to count the money in the register, impressed with Ruby's work.

"Not bad for your first night little red," said Junior, handing Ruby her cut.

"Thank you sir," said Ruby, smiling at the roll of cash Ruby was paid for today. "Have a good night."

"Actually, I need you to do me another favor. Mind helping the DJ move the equipment back?"

Ruby mentally screamed at the thought of having to do even more work. It was bad enough she didn't get to take a break and had to do impromptu janitor duty, but now she had to work even longer.

"Not at all," said Ruby with a smile.

Ruby went over to where the DJ and some of Junior's other men were moving the equipment. Ruby didn't know if it was from the constant work or not, but she could have sworn the equipment suddenly weighed ten times more than they should have; at least that's what her aching back seemed to be signaling to her brain. Ruby gutted out the pain and helped move the equipment as promised. While her and the men were working, the twins were just about to leave.

"Remember to lift with your legs little red," said Miltia.

"Thanks Miltia," replied Ruby sarcastically.

"See you tomorrow night little red," said Melanie before the two of them left.

It took another hour, but Ruby was finally done for the night. After the equipment was put away, Ruby sat down against the wall to catch her breath and rest her back. The DJ of the club came up to her and handed her a bottle of water.

"Thanks for the help little red," said the DJ. Ruby opened the bottle and swallowed half the contents right away.

"You're welcome," said Ruby, rubbing her aching back.

"I know it's been a hard first night, but trust me, it gets better."

"Tending the bar was one thing, but all the other stuff Mr. Xiong has me doing? This isn't exactly what I signed up for."

"He's just doing this because you're the new kid. It's kind of a ritual in this place to see if you have what it takes to stay. I know he seems like an overbearing boss, but if you stick it out and prove your worth, he'll always have your back."

"I hope so, because mine is killing me."

#

Ruby thought about quitting the next day, but decided to give this place at least one more night before calling it quits. Thankfully the place wasn't as packed as last night, so Ruby's workload wouldn't be as bad unless Junior suddenly had more random assignments to give her.

"Good evening little red," greeted Junior. "Ready to work?"

"Of course sir," said Ruby.

"Then hop to it," replied Junior, leaving the bar in Ruby's hands. A few hours into the night and so far it wasn't so bad, but unbeknownst to Ruby, it was about to get worse.

While Ruby was busy serving drinks, she didn't notice Roman Torchwick enter the club. As Torchwick entered the club, he turned his attention to the twins standing by the doorway.

"Hello ladies," said Torchwick. "Is Junior here?"

"He's in the back," said Miltia, "and he's very busy."

"Mind telling him that his pal Roman is here to see him?"

"We'll let him know," said Melanie. "You can wait at the bar."

"Thank you ladies."

Torchwick headed to the bar and took his favorite seat, right in the center of the bar. The bartender had her back turned cleaning glasses.

"Hey barkeep," said Torchwick, snapping his fingers. "Can I get some service?"

"Of course sir," said Ruby, turning around. "What can I-"

Ruby gasped at seeing her arch nemesis at the bar. Torchwick was just as shocked to see little red working in his establishment.

"What the hell are you doing here little red?" yelled Torchwick.

"I work here!" replied Ruby.

"Oh really? He hired you even after you beat up his men?"

"He doesn't know about that."

"Well maybe he ought to know," said Torchwick, smiling at the prospect of being able to blackmail Ruby. "Unless of course you really need this job."

"Look, just tell me what you want so I can get back to work."

"Let's see...," said Torchwick, looking over the drink menu and purposely taking his time making a decision. "I'll have a Fallen Petal."

"One Fallen Petal coming right up."

Ruby quickly made Torchwick's drink and served it to Torchwick. Torchwick took a big sip and suddenly spat it all over Ruby. Ruby responded by taking out a bar rag and drying herself off.

"This drink tastes awful!" said Torchwick. "What's in it?"

"Vodka and cherry juice?" replied Ruby, trying to keep her cool. "Just like it says on the menu?"

"Turns out I hate cherries. I'll have a Sunflower instead."

"One Sunflower coming right up."

Ruby made Torchwick's second drink without missing a beat. Rather than take a sip, Torchwick just held up the glass and looked it over.

"Barkeep, this glass doesn't look clean to me," said Torchwick. "I want another glass!"

"My apologies sir," said Ruby, taking the drink and discarding it. "I'll get you a clean glass right away."

Ruby took out a new glass and shined it in front of Torchwick to prove that it would indeed be clean, despite the last glass being just as clean. Ruby served Roman's new drink and went back to serving other customers. Roman just sat there staring at his drink.

"Something wrong sir?" asked Ruby.

"I just like to take my time admiring my drink," said Torchwick. "Is that so wrong?"

"I know what you're trying to do Roman; you're trying to make me lose it so you have a reason to get me fired. I'm not stupid."

"Come on little red, you know you want to take a swing at me. What's it going to take?"

"A lot more than being a rude customer, that's for sure."

"Well then, how about this?"

Torchwick suddenly leaned forward and grabbed Ruby by her shirt, trying to pull her over the counter. Ruby grabbed Torchwick's drink and threw it in his face to blind him. Torchwick wiped himself off and tried to jump over the bar when he was suddenly pulled back and restrained by Melanie.

"Junior, Code 86 at the bar," said Miltia, speaking into an earpiece. "Repeat, Code 86."

While Melanie kept Torchwick away from Ruby, Junior immediately came out to see what was going on.

"I heard we have a Code 86," said Junior. "What's going on?"

"Ah, Junior!" greeted Torchwick. "Long time no see!"

"What the hell do you want Roman?"

"I was just trying to enjoy my drink when your bartender make some rude remarks and threw a drink at me."

"He's lying!" yelled Ruby.

"Calm down little red," said Junior. "Ladies, what really happened?"

"Roman jumped the bar and tried to attack Ruby," said Miltia.

"Ruby was just defending herself," said Melanie.

"It's the truth Mr. Xiong," said Ruby.

"You're going to listen to her?" said Torchwick. "Hey Junior, just so you know, she's the one responsible for that dust robbery going wrong all those months ago!"

"That was you?" asked a surprised Junior.

"Truthfully...yes," said Ruby. "I was that girl who stopped Roman and your men that one time."

"I see. Well, I know what needs to be done now."

Ruby gripped her fists and tried to keep herself from crying. She expected Junior to suddenly fire her.

"Little red, go in the back and get a new uniform," said Junior.

"Huh?" said Ruby and Torchwick simultaneously.

"I can't have my bartenders look like a mess. There should be a spare uniform in the back. Hurry up and get changed."

"Wait a minute!" said Torchwick. "What about me?"

"You're going to have to leave now," said Junior.

"Excuse me?"

"Did I stutter? You've got exactly one minute to pay for your drinks and get your butt out of here before I make you leave."

"Are you kidding me?" yelled Torchwick, losing his temper. "She beats up your men and you're going to kick ME out? Do you know who the hell you're messing with?"

"Listen to me you Godfather wannabe," said Junior, placing a finger on Torchwick's chest. "Because of you, most of my men either got hospitalized, jailed, or quit. You've caused more trouble than you're worth. Now get out the hell out of my club and never show your face here again."

Torchwick smacked Junior's arm away and pointed his cane at Junior's face. "I'd like to see you make me baby bear!"

"What did you call me?" asked Junior, his right eye starting to twitch fast.

"You heard me, BABY BEAR!"

Junior loosened his tie and took a deep breath to calm himself down.

"Ladies?" said Junior. "86."

Knowing what that meant, Torchwick turned around to see Melanie and Miltia attempt to attack him at the same time. Torchwick used his cane to block both of their blades.

"What's wrong baby bear, need some girls to fight your battles?" said Torchwick. While Torchwick was busy with the twins, Junior suddenly pulled out his giant club.

"Hey Torchwick!" said Junior, getting Torchwick's attention. Torchwick turned around only to be slammed in the gut with Junior's weapon and sent flying into a wall, knocking him out. The twins picked up his unconscious body and threw him out into the streets.

After Torchwick was kicked out, the three of them went over to check on Ruby, who was surprised to see Junior and the twins stand up for her like that.

"Are you all right Ruby?" asked Junior.

"Yeah, I'm just fine."

"Good. Get changed and then get back to work," said Junior before heading to the back.

"Wait, Mr. Xiong!"

"What's wrong?"

"Why'd you stick up for me like that? I mean, I did beat up your men that one time."

"Because you're my employee, and I don't allow anyone to harass my employees. Right girls?"

"That's right," said Miltia.

"He does plenty of that already," joked Melanie.

"Thank you Mr. Xiong," said Ruby.

"Please, call me Junior," said Junior. "Now back to work."

Ruby nodded and went to get changed. Working here wasn't so bad after all.


	3. Follow The Leader (Ozpin&Ruby)

**Even the best of leaders will have missions they wish had gone better.**

Genre: Drama

#

Ruby felt like a wreck. She thought her team was going to come out looking like heroes after finding the White Fang's hideout and stopping whatever big plans they had. Instead she got herself caught and had to be rescued by her teammates. Roman and the White Fang got away and they still had no idea what they were up to. Her team wasn't angry at all, but Ruby felt they might as well have been.

Ruby was waiting outside of Ozpin's office as Oobleck was giving his report on their findings and how well the team performed their task. Ruby was begging for Ozpin to just come out and give Ruby her punishment and be done with it. After waiting for what seemed like eternity, Ruby was called into Ozpin's office. She entered the office and stood in front of Ozpin, avoiding eye contact and expecting to hear the worst.

"I see you've had quite an adventure Ruby," said Ozpin. "Even got yourself into a pretty big bind."

"Yes sir," said Ruby.

"Nevertheless, Doctor Oobleck tells me that your team performed admirably." Ozpin held out his hand to shake Ruby's. "Well done Ruby."

"Professor Ozpin...can I be honest with you about this mission?"

"What about it?"

"I think the mission was a failure."

Ozpin retracted his arm, surprised to hear Ruby say this. "Now what makes you say that?"

"If it wasn't for me getting captured, we could have stopped Torchwick and the White Fang for good. Instead my team had to waste time trying to rescue me while Torchwick got away. I caused the mission to be a failure, and as leader I don't deserve any praise for this."

"I see. Doctor Oobleck, I'd like to talk to Ruby alone."

"Of course Professor Ozpin," said Oobleck, leaving the office in a flash.

"Have a seat Ruby," said Ozpin. Ruby sat down across from Ozpin. "Now, while it is true that we couldn't capture Torchwick or any members of the White Fang, the important thing is that you and the team came out okay and you stopped a potentially catastrophic tragedy from taking place. You should feel proud of yourself."

"What's the point of stopping one tragedy after another if they're still out there? We had our chance to stop it for good and I blew it! I let down myself, the team...everyone."

"So what do you think should come of it?"

"Professor Ozpin...I'm not sure I can be the leader anymore."

Hearing Ruby wanting to resign as team leader, Ozpin stood up and looked out the clock tower window.

"Come here Ruby. I'd like to show you something."

Ruby got up and looked out the window with Ozpin.

"You see those ships out there?"

"What about them?"

"They're part of the Atlas military. You're familiar with the man in charge, right?"

"Mister Ironwood."

"And you're familiar with his weapons being stolen by the White Fang?"

"Well yeah. We fought one of those robot things of his."

"Let's say you were Ironwood right now. How would you be feeling that your top secret weapons fell into the wrong hands?"

"I'd be really upset. I'd want to find the person responsible and bring them to justice."

"Precisely. Even now, Ironwood has yet to find the people responsible for what happened. That man not only serves as the headmaster of his academy, but runs the military force of an entire kingdom."

"Where are you going with this professor?"

"My point is that, like you, Ironwood has a team to lead. In your case you're leading a team with three other people; Ironwood is leading a team of hundreds of thousands. Yet despite all his military genius, he's had just as much success as you have, if not lower."

Ozpin took a sip of his coffee and sat back down. Ruby sat back down as well.

"But the difference between Ironwood and you is that Ironwood isn't suddenly going to quit and let someone else take over," explained Ozpin. "He's going to keep leading his army until he catches who he's looking for. He's not going to let one failed mission suddenly stop him and think he should resign. He's going to learn from his mistakes and move on. You need to do the same."

"I understand what you're trying to say Professor Ozpin," said Ruby, "but the fact is we had him! Our team had their chance and I blew it for them! My team hasn't said anything, but I just know they're thinking they would be better off without me."

"Ruby, even the best of us have missions that could have gone better than they should have. Ask Professor Goodwitch, General Ironwood, or even your uncle Qrow how many times I've come close to capturing someone, only to let them slip between my fingers. Most people would think it would be crazy to keep following a fool like me."

Ozpin stood back up and placed a hand on Ruby's shoulder.

"Yet they still do, and always will. Ironwood, despite his let downs, will still have his forces following him. Ruby, despite your belief to the contrary, your team will keep following you."

"Are you sure Professor Ozpin?"

"I'm sure."

Ruby left Ozpin's office and headed back to her dorm.

#

Ruby's team were waiting in their dorm, worried what was taking Ruby so long to come back from Ozpin's. When Ruby opened the door and finally arrived, the whole team quickly ran up to her.

"What happened?" asked Yang.

"Nothing," said Ruby. "It just took a while for Doctor Oobleck to explain what happened and then Ozpin wanted to congratulate me."

"That's it?" asked Weiss.

"That's it. Ozpin thinks the team did a great job."

"That's a relief!" said Weiss. "For a while I thought Oobleck was going to fail us!"

"Fail us?" asked Yang. "For what?"

"I mean sure we stopped Torchwick from starting another Grimm invasion," said Weiss, "but it would have been better if we had captured him and the White Fang for good."

"I'm sorry you guys," said Ruby. "It's my fault Torchwick got away."

"Don't be ridiculous!" said Yang. "We'll just have to try again next time!"

"Agreed," said Blake. "We'll stop him and the White Fang eventually."

"And as your teammate," said Weiss, "I'll do a better job in making sure you don't get captured again."

Hearing her team throw in their support like that, Ruby couldn't help but smile.

"Thanks guys. Next time I'm sure Team RWBY will succeed!"

"Yeah!" shouted her team in unison.


	4. Stolen (Emerald&Nora)

**At first she just wanted to get her assignment done and over with; then she wished she never did.**

Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Tragic Shoujo-ai

#

Cinder and her "teammates" were in their dorm going over their plan of analyzing the students of Beacon. They already had all the info they needed on Team RWBY; now they were moving on to finding out more about Team JNPR.

"What do we know about their leader, Jaune Arc?" asked Cinder.

"He's a total loser," said Emerald.

"The guy couldn't fight his way out of a wet paper bag," said Mercury.

"There has to be more to him," said Cinder. "Ozpin doesn't choose team leaders at random."

"Maybe he did it out of pity," said Mercury. "Seriously, he got picked over that Pyrrha chick."

"We'll look into him later. Now, we already know of Pyrrha's abilities. That leaves us with the remaining two members: Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren. Tomorrow, I want you two to spend as much time as you can with them."

"Do we have to?" complained Mercury. "From what I've seen that Ren guy is boring and Nora is a hyperactive nut job."

"That's too bad, because you're going to be with Ren for the whole day."

"Kill me now," said Mercury, burying his face in the comic book he was reading.

"Emerald, you're going to be with Nora."

"I won't let you down Cinder," said Emerald.

"I expect you not to," remarked Cinder.

#

The next morning, Mercury and Emerald headed to the cafeteria to find Ren and Nora. With Jaune and Pyrrha doing their early morning training, the two were sitting by themselves, giving Mercury and Emerald the perfect opportunity to talk to them.

"This is going to be so boring," said Mercury.

"Consider yourself lucky," said Emerald. "I have to get stuck with the loud annoying one."

"Now you complain about the assignment? What happened to 'I won't let you down Cinder. Anything you say Cinder. Oh, Cinder!'"

Mercury then started to make smooching sounds with his lips, pissing off Emerald.

"Knock it off!" said Emerald.

"You're such a kiss-ass," replied Mercury.

Mercury and Emerald approached their table. Ren was eating his pancakes while Nora was talking about another weird dream she had.

"And that's when I noticed I was only in my underwear!" said Nora.

"Underwear. Got it," replied Ren.

"Excuse us," greeted Emerald. "Is it okay if we sit here?"

"The queen officially grants you asylum!" said Nora.

"She means yes," said Ren.

"Thank you," said Emerald. In her mind Emerald was already getting annoyed at the thought of having to hear Nora talk like this all day. "I'm Emerald. He's Mercury."

"You're the transfer students from Haven, right?"

"Yep," said Mercury. "We're here to represent Haven for the Vytal Festival."

"Will you be participating in the tournament?" asked Nora.

"Definitely. We just might face each other."

"Not to get you down, but Ren and I are SO gonna take that tournament!"

"I don't know. My partner here is pretty good at stealing victories."

Emerald kicked Mercury in the shin for using the s-word in front of her.

"So what do you two do during these off days?" asked Emerald.

"I like to go hang out in the city," said Nora. "But Ren likes to stay inside and study like a boring old party pooper."

"I'll remember you said that the next time you ask to borrow my notes," replied Ren.

"I didn't mean it!" said Nora, suddenly getting on her knees to beg. "Please forgive me Ren!"

"I forgive you," said Ren, patting Nora on the head, causing Nora to squeal. Emerald leaned over to whisper to Mercury.

"Wanna trade assignments?" asked Emerald.

"Uhh-uh," said Mercury. "You're keeping the crazy one."

"If I have to hang out with her for more than five minutes, I'll kill her!"

"Should of thought of that before sucking up to Cinder!"

"What'cha guys talking about?" interrupted Nora.

"Oh!" said Emerald. "We were just discussing what to do today. I'm still pretty new to this city though."

"Then you should come with me!" said Nora. "I can show you two all the best places in town!"

"Actually, I need to catch up on my studying," said Mercury. "Mind giving me some help Ren?"

"Not a problem," said Ren.

"All right!" said Nora. "Meet me at the front of the school at oh-ten-hundred hours!"

Nora immediately ran off to her dorm to get ready.

"Did she just say 'oh ten hundred?'" asked Emerald.

"Math was never her strong suit," said Ren.

#

Emerald and Nora were on their way to the city via the airship. While on the ship, Nora was rambling about all the pizza places in the city and how she systematically ranked them from best to worst.

"Now the one near the center square is cheap, but the guy who makes them is really rude, so I rank them the third worst. There's one on the east side that's kind of pricy, but the pizza tastes so good and the couple that runs the store is really sweet, so I rank them second best. My number one pick is this one near the shopping mall by the-"

"Nora!" interrupted Emerald. "I don't like pizza!"

"Oh," said Nora, feeling somewhat dejected. Emerald was hoping that would get Nora to shut up, but she just smiled right back. "That's okay. I also happen to know the best and worst burger places! Now the way I rank those is based on a toppings to burger ratio..."

Nora continued to ramble on and on much to Emerald's annoyance. Emerald was hoping by the time they arrived in the city Nora would be worn out, but she was still as energetic as ever.

"Okay, what do you want to do first?" said Nora. "Shopping? Eating? Movies?"

"I don't know," said Emerald. "I guess go shopping?"

"Great! I've been meaning to get some new summer clothes! Say Emerald..."

"What is it?"

"Ready yourself, for Summer is upon us!" said Nora in a dramatic voice. Emerald gave Nora a confused look. "You know, like that show?"

"What show?"

"Forget it, let's go!"

Nora took Emerald to a big department store in the heart of the city. They headed to the summer clothes section where Nora was trying on all sorts of new outfits. Emerald had no interest in trying on clothes and was waiting for Nora to be done already; she was currently debating whether or not she should buy a hat to go along with her wardrobe.

"What do you think Emerald?" asked Nora. "Hat or no hat?"

"I don't know," said Emerald. "Does it matter?"

"Well if I get a hat, I won't have to worry about the sun, but at the same time I'm not sure I can pull off this look off. I suppose I could get sunglasses-"

"Then just buy the stupid hat!" said Emerald.

"Whoa there," said Nora. "I was just asking for your opinion."

"I'm sorry. It's just...I really don't care."

Nora put down the hat and confronted Emerald.

"I know what the real problem is," said Nora, getting face to face with Emerald. Emerald was a bit worried where Nora was going with this.

"You do?" asked Emerald.

"I sure do! You have no fashion sense!"

"I...what?"

"Look at you, standing around and trying nothing on! It's because deep down you have no idea what looks good and what doesn't! But today is your lucky day Emerald, because I'm here to help!" Nora quickly ran over and grabbed a green pleated summer dress. "Get in there and put this on!"

Not wanting to blow her cover, Emerald took the dress and went in the changing room. She was going to try it on and agree with whatever compliments Nora would make, then go back to focusing on her assignment. She put on the dress and then opened the door for Nora to see.

"Is this good?" asked Emerald.

"Why not look for yourself?" said Nora, pointing towards the mirror. Emerald groaned and look at the mirror. That's when she actually noticed the way she looked with the dress. Emerald was hardly concerned with the way she ever looked, but seeing herself in the mirror was sort of bringing a smile to her face.

"Weeeeeell?" asked Nora.

"It...looks good," said Emerald.

"Eureka!" shouted Nora. "I knew you weren't a lost cause!"

Emerald quickly changed back into her regular clothes. The two looked around the rest of the department store when they came across the jewelry section. Nora stopped to admire a silver bracelet on display.

"That would look so perfect on me," said Nora. "I really wish I can wear something like that."

"Too bad we can't afford it," said Emerald, pointing out the high price tag.

"I can afford it. I would just have trouble wearing it."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm worried that when I go hunting for Grimm that I'll lose it in the middle of battle, and lord forbid it gets swallowed by a Grimm. I would either have to pull the Grimm's guts out or wait a while for them to go the bath-"

"Say no more!" replied Emerald, not wanting to picture what Nora was thinking.

"I want to check out one more section before we go."

"You go ahead. I wanna see more of the jewelry."

As Nora left, Emerald looked around and noticed nobody was paying attention to her. In the blink of an eye, she swiped the bracelet from its stand and pocketed it, then walked away to catch up with Nora.

After they were done exploring the store, Nora paid for all of their stuff and were on their way out when a guard suddenly stopped in front of them.

"Something wrong officer?" asked Nora.

"Ma'am, could you please empty your pockets?" asked the guard towards Emerald. Emerald panicked, realizing she had been caught.

"What's going on?" asked Nora. "Did you steal something?"

Emerald didn't know what to do. If she showed them the bracelet she stole, her cover would be completely blown. She was thinking of grabbing her weapons and fighting them off, but that would incriminate her even worse. Before she can respond, Nora reached into Emerald's pocket and pulled out the bracelet.

_"Dammit! Looks like I don't have a choice!"_ thought Emerald. She was about to reach for her weapons when Nora spoke up.

"Oh man, I forgot about the bracelet!" said Nora. "I'm so sorry Emerald!"

"Excuse me?" said the guard. Emerald was just as confused to what Nora was doing.

"I'm sorry sir, it's a big misunderstanding! I asked her to hold it for me while I was looking at something else and I forgot to tell her I hadn't paid for it yet. It's totally my fault!"

"So you're saying she didn't steal it?"

"I swear on my word as a huntress! I'll even pay for it right now!"

Nora went back into the store and paid for the bracelet in full. Nora constantly apologized to everyone as her and Emerald left the store. The two quickly ran as far as they could from the store to avoid further conflict. Emerald was at a loss for words for how Nora stood up for her like that.

"I don't know what to say Nora," said Emerald. "Why'd you stick up for me back there?"

"Because I know the kind of person you are Emerald," said Nora. Her usual cheery nature was replaced with a serious tone.

"You do?"

"There are two kinds of people who steal: Those who are big meanies and love to steal because they're greedy and they think it's fun, or softies who really wanted something but can't afford it. I think it's obvious which one you fall under."

_"Then she knows!"_ thought Emerald. Emerald was prepared to fight Nora when Nora smiled and gave a light punch to Emerald's shoulder.

"If you really wanted that bracelet, you could of just asked me ya softie!"

"Softie?" said Emerald. "You think I'm a softie?"

"Well of course you are. I'm pretty good at getting to know people, and from what I've seen of you, I know exactly what you are."

"Oh really? What can you possibly know about me?"

Nora held her hand close to her eye as if holding a magnifying glass. "Based on my observations of your behavior, I have deduced the following!" Nora then trusted her other hand forward and pointed towards Emerald. "You, Miss Emerald, have had a hard life growing up! You likely suffered many bad breaks and never got to experience the fun and excitement like so many others get to do!"

Emerald was stunned. Somehow this loud, obnoxious, hyperactive idiot had hit the nail right on the head.

"That's...right," said Emerald.

"Do you want to talk about it?" asked Nora, sitting down on a bench and saving a seat for Emerald. Emerald took a seat and explained her story.

"I was homeless and without a family for as long as I can remember. Stealing was just one of the many things I was forced to do to survive. I've been stealing all my life, and even now when I finally caught a break and got accepted into Beacon, I still find myself doing it."

"Well Emerald, the first step to overcoming a problem is to admit your fault. I'm going to help you kick your habit. The next time you want something, anything, you come to me and I'll buy it for you."

"You would do that? I mean, can you afford to do that?"

"Don't worry about it. Ren and I come from very well-off families; and to prove I really mean it..."

Nora took out the bracelet that Emerald had tried to steal and gave it to her.

"I want you to keep this as a gift, okay?" asked Nora.

Emerald was nearly in tears with Nora handing her such an expensive bracelet like it was nothing. "Nora...I...I don't know what to say!"

"You can say thank you; or thanks; or praise ye benevolent Queen Nora, although that last one is kind of-"

"Thank you Nora," said Emerald.

"You're welcome!" said Nora. "Now, we just so happen to be next to my number one ranked barbeque joint! What do you say we get something to eat?"

"Sounds great."

#

This wasn't the way the assignment was supposed to go. She was supposed to interrogate Nora and get to know any secrets of her that would help Cinder with her master plan.

But somewhere between receiving such a lovely present and chowing down on the best food Emerald ever tasted, she couldn't give a damn about her assignment. Emerald spent more time trying to come up with excuses to explain why Nora wasn't important than actually learning about Nora, and whatever she did learn about Nora, she didn't plan on telling Cinder anyway.

The two were currently enjoying frozen yogurt. Emerald was only have a small cup of chocolate with some sprinkles, while Nora bought the biggest cup size available and crammed it with every topping possible. Emerald was worried that Nora was going to go into diabetic shock from all that sugar she was about to consume.

"Say Emerald," said Nora. "What's the relationship between you and Mercury?"

"Relationship?" asked Emerald.

"You know, are you friends, friend friends...REALLY friendly friends?"

"We're just teammates. I honestly can't stand the guy."

"Aw, you shouldn't feel that way about your teammate. You should get along with everyone on your team."

"What about you? What's the relationship between you and Ren? You two hooked up with each other?"

"Oh, Ren? He and I have known each other all our lives, but we're not together like that."

"Why not? You two seem to like each other a lot."

"It's not that we don't like each other; it's just that I 'like' like girls instead of boys...like that."

"Oooh," said Emerald. "Well, are there any girls you 'like' like?"

"Eh," said Nora. "It's very slim pickings in Beacon. Most of the girls are either too moody or were already taken. Ah well, I've still got about three and a half years left to find the good one."

By the time Nora was done talking, she had somehow completed her entire serving of frozen yogurt while Emerald was just about halfway done with hers.

"What about you?" asked Nora. "Any boys or girls you 'like' like?"

"I'd...rather not talk about it," said Emerald.

"Uh oh. That usually means there's something deeply wrong or embarrassing. You can tell me Emerald."

"I just said I don't want to," replied Emerald, getting a bit ticked off at Nora trying to pry into her like this.

"Let me rephrase that; I want you to tell me."

"Fine. If you want to know, there's this girl I...'like' like."

"Really? Quick, what's the secret lesbian password?"

"Lesbian password?"

"I'm kidding! So what's wrong? Too shy to tell her, or you don't think she'll like you back, or-"

"I can't ever tell her. Plus even if I could, I'll know she'll just tell me to stop acting so ridiculous."

Nora was starting to feel worried about this person Emerald was talking about. Anyone who responded to someone like that didn't sound like the kind of person to be romantically involved with.

"You'd really think she'd say something like that to you?" asked Nora.

"No," said Emerald, looking away from Nora. "She'll probably say worse."

"Look, I don't know who this person is, but if this person is going to make you feel bad for trying to express how you feel, they shouldn't be your friend."

"Except she's more than a friend. I mean, I see her as more than a friend, but she doesn't really see me as a friend. She sees me like..." Emerald started squeezing her cup and spilling the yogurt out.

"Emerald, what are you trying to say?" asked Nora.

Emerald got up and suddenly ran into the bathroom. Nora got up and followed Emerald inside. Emerald was inside one of the stalls, trying to keep quiet from crying too loud. Nora knocked on door.

"Emerald?" asked Nora. "Are you okay?"

"Leave me alone Nora!" yelled Emerald.

"I'm not leaving until you tell me what's wrong."

"Why do you care! It's none of your business!"

"Because I don't like seeing my friends get upset! Emerald, if this person did something to you, I want to help!"

Emerald went silent for a few seconds, then opened the door. Emerald went to the sink to wash out the tears on her face.

"The truth this person she sees me as nothing more than her personal servant," said Emerald.

"That's horrible!" said Nora. "So why feel this way for her?"

"Because she's the reason I no longer have to live on the streets. She took me in when no else would. If I tried to stand up to her, I know she'll just send me back. I don't have anywhere or anyone else I can go to."

Nora grabbed some paper towels and helped Emerald dry herself off.

"You need to tell her," said Nora.

"But Nora-"

"No buts Emerald. You've got one of two options: Tell her how you really feel, or leave her. You can't keep these emotions bottled up like this."

"But I'm scared of how she'll react."

"You won't really know until you try, and if anything happens...I'll be there to help."

"Nora?"

"Yes?"

Emerald turned around and hugged Nora tightly. "You're the best friend I've ever had."

"Thanks Emerald."

"Listen, I have to get back to my dorm. Thanks for showing me around."

"Before you go, there's one more thing we have to do."

"What is it?"

"Follow me."

The two gathered their belongings and headed out towards the big shopping district. They were walking for about five minutes as Nora was looking around trying to search for something.

"Where are we going Nora?" asked Emerald.

"I know it's around here somewhere...there it is!" exclaimed Nora. Outside one of the stores was a photo booth. "We can't end the day without taking photos! C'mon!"

Before Emerald can say anything, Nora grabbed Emerald and dragged her into the booth with her. After Nora set up the camera, she started striking several poses and making funny faces. Emerald was a bit shy to do any of that at first, but eventually joined in the fun with Nora.

"Okay, serious pose time," said Nora. Emerald and Nora sat still to take a regular photo, but one second before the camera flashed, Nora suddenly turned around and kissed Emerald right on the cheek. The camera snapped just in time to catch Nora's kiss and Emerald's shocked expression.

"Nora!" yelled Emerald, blushing bright red.

"Sorry! Couldn't resist!" smiled Nora. The two took their copies of the photos and headed home.

#

Later that night, Cinder's team went over what they learned about their targets.

"So what do we know about the remaining two members of Team JNPR?" asked Cinder.

"I learned that Ren is the most BORING man on the planet!" complained Mercury. "All he does is study, meditate, study, read, study, tune up his weapons, and wait, did I mention he studies at the library? Because he does that a lot!"

"I get it Mercury," said Cinder. "What about Nora?"

"Nothing much," said Emerald. "She's just a really hyperactive girl."

"Are you telling me that you two spent the entire day with them and couldn't learn a thing?" asked Cinder.

"I told you," said Mercury, "all that Ren does is study. I'm surprised Emerald failed to learn anything."

"Surprised that I failed?" asked Emerald.

"Yeah. You'd think when you hang out with a girl who just yaps all the time, at some point she'd tell you something."

"Well maybe she didn't tell me anything!"

When Mercury turned to Emerald, he noticed something shiny attached to Emerald's left wrist.

"What's that on your wrist?" asked Mercury.

"Oh, this?" said Emerald, holding up her wrist. "It's a bracelet."

"Wow Emerald. Can't go twenty-four hours without shoplifting, could you?"

"I didn't steal it! It was a gift."

"From who?" asked Cinder.

"From...Nora," said Emerald.

"Does she know you took it?" asked Mercury.

"Yes!" said Emerald. "Why do you have to assume anything I have is stolen?"

"Because it is?" replied Mercury. "Careful Cinder, she just might take your stuff next."

"That's enough Mercury," said Cinder. "Emerald, just what exactly did you do with Nora today?"

"We hung out," said Emerald. "Just like you wanted us to."

"And yet despite hanging out to the point where she buys that kind of bracelet for you, you learned nothing about her? What were you doing all this time?"

"We...kind of...had fun?"

"We're not here to have fun!" yelled Cinder. "We're here to infiltrate and eradicate! Today I'll let it slide, but the next time I assign either of you to learn about someone, I expect you to actually learn or else!"

"Or else what?" asked Emerald.

Emerald quickly covered her mouth, realizing she made a horrible mistake. Mercury kept himself from laughing while Cinder looked at Emerald like she wanted to kill her. Cinder walked up to Emerald and stared right into her eyes.

"What did you say to me?" asked a furious Cinder.

"Nothing ma'am!" quickly said Emerald.

"I think she said 'or else what'," said Mercury.

"Is there something you'd like to say to me Emerald?" asked Cinder. Emerald was too nervous from the way Cinder was looking at her to speak up. Instead she just shook her head.

"That's what I thought," said Cinder. "The two of you go to bed. I have work to do."

As Cinder turned to leave, Emerald remembered the advice Nora had gave her. Emerald couldn't back down like this every time Cinder got mad at her. If Emerald didn't stand up and tell Cinder how she really felt, Cinder would walk all over her for the rest of her life. She decided to take her stand.

"Am I just some pawn of yours?" asked Emerald. Cinder turned back around.

"Excuse me?" asked Cinder.

"You think I'm nothing more than some servant out to do your dirty work? I'm not allowed to go out, make friends, and have fun once in a while?"

"Why Emerald...I had no idea you felt this way. Come here."

Cinder held her arms out as if she wanted to hug Emerald. Surprised, Emerald slowly walked up to Cinder. As Emerald got close, Cinder suddenly lit her right hand on fire and slapped Emerald hard across the face. The force of the blow knocked Emerald down and left a burn mark on Emerald's left cheek. Before Emerald can get up, Cinder placed her foot on Emerald's neck and held her down.

"Listen to me you little hood rat!" said Cinder. "I was the one who brought you out of the streets, and I'm the one who can put you back there! Or would you rather I send you to the grave? Because that is what's going to happen if you EVER talk back to me like that again! Are we clear?"

"Yes ma'am!" said Emerald, trying to hold back the tears from the intense pain she was in.

Cinder then bent down and grabbed Emerald's bracelet. Emerald wanted to yell at Cinder to give it back to her, but knew that would only get her in worse trouble than she already was.

"Now get to bed and don't you dare say another word until spoken to," said Cinder. Cinder got off Emerald and left the dorm, taking Emerald's bracelet with her. Emerald figured Cinder was either going to keep it or sell it; either way, Emerald wasn't getting it back. Mercury didn't say anything during the whole ordeal, but inside he was laughing at how dumb Emerald was for trying to cross Cinder.

Emerald changed into her night clothes and went to bed. Once Mercury was asleep, Emerald pulled out the photos of her and Nora she snuck into bed with her. There were two photos see especially liked of the bunch; the first being where Nora and Emerald each had their arm over the other's shoulders and making the victory sign. The second was the last photo with Nora planting a kiss on Emerald's right cheek. Unlike what happened to her left cheek however, there was no mark that was going to be left behind for Emerald to remember what Nora did. These photos were all that remained of the life Emerald wished she could have.

All her life Emerald either had to fight to survive or follow Cinder's orders. She never got to do the things she did with Nora today, and because of the crimes that Emerald had committed under Cinder, she knew even if she was free from Cinder, she would never get to experience them again. Nora tried to be supportive, but deep down Emerald knew no matter what Nora can do, it wasn't going to free Emerald from this cursed life of hers.

There was no point in ever seeing Nora again.

"I'm sorry Nora," said Emerald as the tears dropped from her eyes. "I'm sorry."


	5. Regrets (Roman&Penny)

**They captured her thinking she would be a valuable hostage. How wrong they were.**

Genre: Humor

#

Torchwick was in the middle of organizing their move to the secret base in Mountain Glenn when one of the White Fang cronies called him, claiming they had obtained a valuable hostage. Interested on who they captured, Torchwick flew back into the city to their downtown hideout.

"This had better be good Perry," said Torchwick. "Because I'm very busy and not in the best of moods right now."

"It's definitely good sir," said Perry. "It's one of the kids who sabotaged our mission at the docks a month ago."

"Oh," replied Torchwick. "This should be good."

Torchwick thought about who exactly they captured from that night everything went wrong. He was hoping it was the little red hooded girl who had been a thorn in his side for months, or maybe that Faunus girl who tried to turn the White Fang against him. Either way, having any of those kids hostage was going to come in handy.

Torchwick went to the back room where the hostage was waiting. Torchwick turned on the lights and saw the hostage sitting in the middle of the room tied up to a chair; it was the girl with orange bobbed hair and bright green eyes.

"Salutations!" greeted Penny, as if unaware of the imminent danger she was in. "My name is Penny!"

"Um...," said Torchwick. He never had a hostage greet him so kindly. "Hello Penny. As you can already tell, you are going to be our hostage."

"Is that good?" asked Penny.

Torchwick was dumbfounded for a moment. Was this girl not understanding what was going on right now?

"Uh...yes, it's very good," said Torchwick. "You are going to be a big help to us Penny."

"Glad I can help!" said Penny. "So what do I have to do?"

"Well, all you really have to do is not leave."

"Okay. I will remain here and help you out!"

"You do that."

Torchwick left the room and went over to talk to Perry.

"Okay, explain to me how you were able to capture her."

"We were patrolling the area when she suddenly came up to greet us," said Perry. "We told her to get lost but she said she was already lost. We were trying to give her directions when one of the others recognized her from the docks, so then we told her to come with us and she did."

"You told her to come with you, and she obliged."

"Pretty much so, yeah."

Torchwick held his hand to his eyes and sighed.

"Something wrong sir?" asked Perry.

"It's not exactly a hostage situation if the hostage is willingly staying with us," said Torchwick, "especially since this one appears to be...well, she's stupid. She's very stupid."

"But she destroyed two of our ships."

"Okay, she's stupid and insanely powerful. Maybe we can use that to our advantage."

Torchwick went back into the room to talk to Penny.

"Say Penny, tell me a little more about yourself. Where are you from?"

"I'm from Atlas," said Penny.

"Do you have any family in Atlas?"

"Just my father, and I guess you can say Mister Ironwood is kind of like family."

"That's good to know. Now how much...wait, did you say Ironwood? As in General James Ironwood?"

"Yeah. He's a very nice man; I like to think of him as my uncle."

"That's so sweet. Excuse me."

This time Torchwick exited the room to talk to Perry.

"Perry!" yelled Torchwick. "Are you aware that the girl you kidnapped is related to James freaking Ironwood?"

"That's a good thing...right?" asked Perry.

"No Perry! That's bad! That's very bad! If she were related to anybody else, I would be happy! But you see, Ironwood leads Atlas' military, and he has access to some of the most dangerous weapons in all of Remnant! If we tried to negotiate with him, you know how he's going to respond?"

"Um...he'll kill us?"

"Exactly Perry! He will kill us."

"So what do we do now?"

"We don't have a choice; we have to kill the girl."

"How do we do that sir?"

"I don't know, throw her into the ocean or something! They'll never find her body that way!"

"Actually I'd be able to survive underwater," said Penny.

"Thanks for letting us know. All right, instead we'll..."

Torchwick suddenly stopped and turned around to see Penny standing right behind him.

"How did you get free?" yelled Torchwick.

"I powered out of the ropes," said Penny. "They were really making me feel uncomfortable."

"Say Penny...could you look over there for a while?"

"Okay."

Penny turned around to look at one side of the room for no reason. With her back turned to Torchwick, Torchwick held up his cane, wound up his arms back, and took a strong swing to the back of Penny's head in an attempt to knock her out. Instead of knocking Penny out, the cane was bent into a 45 degree angle. Torchwick gasped in horror at his cane being destroyed instantly.

"What the hell is she?" whispered Torchwick.

"Do I need to keep looking this way?" asked Penny.

"Yes!" said Torchwick. "Keep looking!"

Torchwick turned to Perry and silently told him to shoot her. Perry shook his head, thinking that if Penny was somehow strong enough to withstand a hard blow to the head without feeling a thing, shooting her was probably not going to work. Torchwick wrestled the gun out of Perry's hand and fired at Penny. The bullet ricocheted off Penny's body, causing Torchwick and Perry to freak out thinking the bullet was going to hit them, but luckily bounced in another direction.

"How am I doing sir?" asked Penny.

"You're doing great Penny!" said Torchwick.

"What do we now sir?" whispered Perry.

"Do we still have one of the trucks here?" whispered Torchwick.

"Yeah; they're over by that side."

"Good. Make sure she doesn't move."

Torchwick quickly ran to the other side of the hideout and got into one of the trucks. He drove the truck into position, where he would make a straight beeline to Penny at full speed. He slammed on the gas pedal and headed towards Penny.

Penny heard the truck coming by and realized it was about to hit her. Torchwick smiled as it was too late for Penny to jump out of the way. Penny held out her arms as the truck rammed into her and came to a sudden stop, the front engine of the truck folding into itself and killing the truck's motor. If not for wearing a seatbelt, Torchwick would have gone flying out the window.

Torchwick got out of the truck clutching his chest, thinking he was going to have a heart attack.

"Oh my, are you okay?" said Penny. "You need to watch where you're driving!"

Penny put her hand on Torchwick's shoulder, causing him to suddenly freak out and fall down. He quickly got back up and dusted himself off.

"Well Penny," said Torchwick, clearing his throat. "I'm sorry to say that this whole hostage thing is really not working out between us."

"But I really tried to help!" said Penny.

"I know, but I just don't think you'll make a good hostage. Come, we'll give you a ride home, and in exchange you never tell anybody where you were tonight, okay?"

"Okay!"

#

Penny's bodyguards were at the Vale police station, trying to report the disappearance of Penny.

"Look," said one of the guards, "it's very important we find this girl immediately!"

"What do you want me to tell you?" said the detective. "All we can do is search the city and hope for the best."

Just then, they heard a car suddenly screech to a halt in front of the station. Somebody was then pushed out of the car as the car immediately drove off afterwards. The guards ran outside and saw Penny laying on the sidewalk blindfolded.

"Penny!" yelled one of the guards, running to Penny and removing the blindfold. "Are you okay?"

"I'm just fine," said Penny.

"Where were you?"

"I was taken hostage; but they said I wasn't being a very good hostage, so they decided to drop me home. I don't know why they dropped me here though."

The guards didn't know what to make of Penny's story, but they decided it was to not ask questions and just take Penny home.


	6. Pancake Training (Yang&Ren)

**The key to mastering your aura isn't how powerful it is; it's how well you control it.**

Genre: Drama

#

Yang was in a sparring match against Cardin. The fight was pretty one sided as Yang just beat the life out of Cardin. If not for Cardin's armor protecting him, the match likely would have been over by now. Yang's teammates and friends were cheering her on; Ren for some reason remained silent.

"Cardin doesn't stand a chance!" said Ruby.

"Go Yang!" said Nora. "Break his legs!"

"She's going to lose," said Ren.

Everyone else turned to Ren and were surprised by what he said.

"Ren, aren't you paying attention?" said Jaune. "Cardin hasn't been able to land a single blow!"

"Yeah!" said Ruby. "Yang's got this in the bag!"

"She's going to lose any minute now," said Ren. "Just watch."

Cardin kept himself from a distance and began launching fireballs from his mace at Yang. Yang was easily able to weave between each blast, until the last suddenly nailed her, knocking her down.

"Lucky shot," said Ruby.

"It wasn't luck," replied Ren. "Yang was too slow to react."

With Yang down, Cardin held his mace high and went for one giant swing. Yang quickly rolled out of the way and jumped back up, then nailed Cardin with a strong right hook, causing Cardin to get dizzy and stumble back, leaving him wide open for another attack.

"See?" said Ruby. "She's right back up! Shows what you know!"

"She's wobbling," said Ren.

The others took a closer look and noticed that Yang seemed to be having problems standing still, although it didn't change the fact that Yang was just one more blow away from ending this in her favor. Yang charged at Cardin ready to land one final punch, but by the time she was halfway there she suddenly struggled to keep going as if she had just run out of gas. By the time she reached Cardin, he already recovered from the last punch and was able to simply sidestep out of the way as Yang threw an incredibly slow punch, then stumbled a few feet more before collapsing. Everyone but Ren was shocked at what happened.

"Miss Xiao Long," said Goodwitch, "it seems you are unable to continue. The match goes to-"

"No!" said Yang between breaths. "I can...still go!"

"If you insist," said Goodwitch.

Yang didn't understand what was going on. She was dominating Cardin throughout the whole match, and now she could barely stand up. Yang slowly got back to her feet as Cardin stood by her and laughed. Yang responded by throwing another punch to his chest, but Cardin barely felt a thing. Cardin responding by swinging his mace into Yang's ribs and knocking her back down. Yang moaned in pain as if she had suddenly broken a rib.

"I apologize Miss Xiao Long," said Goodwitch, "but it's clear you are unable to continue. The match goes to Cardin!"

Cardin and his team celebrated as medics came in to check on Yang. After the class was over, Teams RWBY and JNPR went to check on Yang in the back. Yang was lying down covering her ribs with an ice pack.

"You okay Yang?" asked Ruby.

"Just some bruises," said Yang. "I'll be fine."

"I don't understand," said Jaune. "Yang had that match won. Cardin must have cheated!"

"That has to be it!" said Nora. "It's a conspiracy I tell you!"

"I wish that was true, but it isn't," said Yang. "Cardin won that fight fair and square."

"Just what happened out there?" asked Pyrrha.

"I don't know," said Yang. "One moment I'm feeling fantastic, and the next thing I know, it feels as if I've had my energy just zapped right out of me. I can't quite explain it."

"I can," said Ren. "I could tell by the way you were fighting that Cardin was guaranteed to come out the victor."

"Then spill it lotus boy!"

"Long story short, you wasted so much aura, you were completely drained by the end of the fight."

"What do you mean I wasted my aura?"

"It's too long to explain here. Meet me outside the school after classes and I'll show you."

#

After the final class of the day, Yang met Ren outside of the main school building. With a majority of the students back in their dorms, the outdoors were empty save for them.

"So what's this about me wasting my aura?" asked Yang.

"As you should know," explained Ren, "no matter how powerful one's aura may be, it always come in limited supply. The key to being a strong fighter isn't just having strong aura, but being able to control it so that you always use the right amount of aura necessary. If you always use more than you need, you quickly become exhausted. That was why you lost to Cardin earlier today; every time you made an attack, you use more aura than necessary."

"So what if I was using more than necessary?" said Yang. "It gets the job done doesn't it?"

"Let me put it this way. If you were thirsty, would you drink an entire gallon of water when a small cup would work just as well?"

"Why not? As long as I'm not thirsty anymore, right?"

"I see analogies aren't going to work. Let's try this instead." Ren picked up a small rock and tossed it to Yang. "I want you to crush that rock using only your hands."

"No problem!"

Yang channeled her aura into her hand and attempted to crush the rock with just one hand. She squeezed as tight as she could, but couldn't crush the rock. When it was obvious that using one hand was going to be impossible, she instead channeled her aura into her other hand and punched the rock as hard as she could. The rock shattered into pieces.

"There," said Yang. "That wasn't hard at all."

"But look how much aura you wasted," said Ren. "You certainly have a great amount of strength, but you have zero idea of how to control it."

"Enough with the control speech! I bet you couldn't break that rock if you tried!"

"Watch and learn."

Ren picked up a rock of roughly the same size. Ren held it out with his left palm and held up his right index finger, concentrating his aura into it.

"Oh please!" said Yang. "You expect me to think you can break it with one finger?"

"When you properly control your aura," said Ren, "it doesn't matter if you use fists, fingers, or any other part of your body; the results will be the same."

Ren poked the rock with his finger, causing the rock to shatter into dust. Yang was stunned to see the rock disappear like that.

"You can continue fighting the way you want to," said Ren. "But if you want to learn more, meet me in the cafeteria just before sunrise."

As Ren left, Yang went over to where the dust that was Ren's rock remained, and compared it to the shattered pieces of her rock. Yang used more effort than Ren, and yet it was obvious that based on these rocks alone, Ren looked to be far stronger than Yang. Yang made a note to herself to set her alarm super early; she needed to find out more.

#

Yang never got up so early in her life. The moment her alarm went off and she woke up, she nearly fell back asleep. She forced herself out of bed, got dressed, and headed to the cafeteria to meet with Ren. Yang was hoping there would be coffee waiting for her, otherwise she might fall asleep during training. Yang dragged herself to the cafeteria's kitchen, where Ren was wide awake and ready to teach.

"Good morning Yang," greeted Ren. "Sleep well?"

"I wish I still was," yawned Yang.

"I figured you would be tired. I made some coffee."

Yang smiled at Ren's kind gesture. Ren grabbed a pot and placed it next to Yang. Yang was wondering where the cups were for her to drink it.

"No cups?" asked Yang.

"I assumed you would just be drinking the whole pot," said Ren.

"Are you kidding? I don't need THAT much coffee!"

"Why not? As long as you're not tired anymore, right?"

Yang groaned. He didn't make the coffee just to be courteous; he did it to prove his point of excessiveness. Yang was still very tired though, so she grabbed the pot and still drank a cup's worth to jolt herself awake.

"I hope you didn't drag me all this way just to make a coffee metaphor," said Yang.

"Don't worry, we'll get to the real training now," said Ren.

"Kind of a weird place to be training don't ya think?"

"Our training isn't going to involve fighting."

Ren stepped aside and showed Yang a wide array of food and kitchen utensils laying behind him.

"You and I are going to make pancakes."

"Seriously? What's next, you gonna make me wax Ozpin's car?"

"You've had my pancakes before, haven't you?"

"A couple times; they were great actually. Still don't know what this has to do with aura."

"Controlling aura is a lot like making pancakes. Anybody can make pancakes with the right ingredients, but to make the perfect pancakes requires using precisely the right amount of said ingredients; then they have to cook it at the exact right temperature for the exact amount of time. Going overboard in any of these areas will result in subpar pancakes."

Ren grabbed the utensils and ingredients and placed them next to Yang and Ren's respective stoves they would be using to cook pancakes.

"I assume you know how to make pancakes?" asked Ren.

"Of course I do," said Yang. "You mix eggs, milk, and batter into a bowl, then you place the mix on the griddle and cook it."

"In that case, we can skip right to the challenge. I informed our teammates that we would be making them breakfast this morning; they'll be arriving here in about one hour. Whoever's pancakes they find better wins."

"Hate to tell you this, but your reign as Beacon's best pancake maker is going to end."

"Let's make this a little more exciting, shall we?"

Ren took out a blindfold and tied it around his eyes. Yang was snorting at Ren trying to throw more subtle insults.

"Gonna tie one hand behind your back too?" asked Yang.

"I'm not that good," replied Ren. "Now begin!"

Yang immediately grabbed the egg carton and took out three eggs. She smashed each egg on the side of the bowl hard, causing some egg white to spill on the side. Ren calmly took two eggs and neatly cracked them over his bowl, getting all the contents into his bowl. Next came the milk; Yang poured it into the measuring cup until it was around two cups, then dumped it into the bowl; Ren slowly poured into his measuring cup and stopped just when there was exactly one cup of milk, then poured it into his bowl. Finally, Yang opened the pancake box and kept pouring until it looked about right, then immediately started stirring as quickly as she could. Ren used a second measuring cup to measure precisely two cups of batter, then poured the batter into the bowl and stirred.

Once they had their mixes complete, they turned on their stoves. Yang flicked all the settings straight to high, while Ren carefully turned each knob until they were a notch below medium. They grabbed their ladles and began making their pancakes three at a time. After a couple minutes, Yang flipped her first pancake and noticed that it became very dark brown; nearly black. Yang was swearing under her breath as the other pancakes were nearly burnt on one side as well. She decided to wait less time for the other side to cook, but it didn't fare much better; each pancake was cooked subpar. Yang placed them on her plate and tried to lower the heat to make sure they didn't burn so quickly. Meanwhile, Ren flipped his pancakes while still blindfolded and had three perfect golden brown pancakes, all in perfectly uniform size.

Falling behind, Yang tried to do more pancakes at a time. The lower heat barely helped as they still weren't as golden brown as Ren's. Yang then tried to lower the heat further, but the next time she tried to flip one of her pancakes, it folded and broke apart. No matter what Yang tried to do, from lowering the heat to adding more ingredients to doing less at a time, none of her pancakes looked as good as Ren's. By the time the challenge was over, Yang had a stockpile of sloppy half-assed pancakes, while Ren had several neat stacks of restaurant quality perfection.

Ren took his blindfold off and observed the results. It was fairly obvious who the victor was, which wasn't surprising to him.

"Do you really think your team deserves those kind of pancakes?" asked Ren.

"Of course they don't," said a dejected Yang. She grabbed her stockpile and threw it all into the trash just before Teams RWBY and JNPR arrived.

Ren took his plate and served them to the teams while Yang stayed in the kitchen to reflect on how much of an amateur she made herself look like. It was just like the fight with Cardin all over again; what should have been an easy victory turned into a loss because she got careless and exhausted herself. Being careless and trying to overdo things was also the reason there were a couple dozen wasted pancakes sitting in the trash right now. After the teams were done having breakfast, Ren returned to the kitchen.

"Have we learned our lesson for today?" asked Ren.

"Yes master," said Yang.

"Same time tomorrow?"

"You bet."

"Good." Ren suddenly pulled out a plate and handed Yang his last remaining stack. "Enjoy."

Yang took the plate and bowed in thanks.

#

The next day they repeated the challenge; this time Ren told Yang the exact measurements he used in making pancakes. Yang decided to take things a lot more slowly. She very carefully cracked the eggs over her bowl, then slightly poured the milk into her measuring cup until it reached just a little under one cup, and then used a little under two cups of batter. Ren was already way ahead of her in making pancakes, but Yang focused on just herself. She kept the stove under low heat so she wouldn't run the risk of burning her pancakes, and then poured the batter onto the griddle. It was taking longer than usual, but this time Yang's pancakes came out a lot better than last time. By the time the challenge ended, Ren had several perfect stacks like last time; Yang only had six whole pancakes completed.

"Quite the quick turnaround Yang," said Ren. "Let's see the results."

Ren and Yang presented their pancakes to the teams. In the end, even though they said they liked both of them, all of them voted unanimously for Ren's. Yang felt like she had failed again. After they cleaned up the kitchen, Yang was about to leave when Ren stopped her.

"Hold on Yang," said Ren. "We're not done for today."

"What now?" asked Yang. She really just wanted to go back to her dorm.

"You made strong improvements compared to yesterday. It shows you're taking this seriously. For that, I'm going to show you exactly the way I make them." Ren handed Yang an egg and placed a bowl underneath. "Hold perfectly still and try to crack the egg using just your aura."

Yang nodded and tried to use her aura. As soon as she channeled her energy, the egg suddenly burst apart and caused some yolk to fly into her face.

"Dammit!" yelled Yang.

"You used too much," said Ren. "Try again."

Yang picked up another egg and tried to do it more slowly. It still ended with the egg exploding into her face. Yang was quickly losing her patience.

"You need to remain calm," said Ren. "You know how they say anger boils up the blood? Figuratively speaking, it does the same to your aura. Calm yourself down, and try to channel your aura into your fingertips, but don't try to let it go."

Yang took a deep breath and picked up another egg. She closed her eyes and tried to think of things that made her happy. She channeled the energy into her fingertips, but kept herself from transferring that aura into the egg itself. Yang could start to feel a strange tingle in her fingers.

"Now when you're ready, gently channel your aura into the egg."

Yang took another deep breath and imagined transferring her aura into the shell of the egg. This time the egg cracked apart perfectly; all of its contents poured into the bowl. Yang was excited to see it finally worked.

"I did it!" said Yang.

"You see the way you channeled your aura?" said Ren. "I want you to keep channeling your aura like that for the rest of the day."

Yang took Ren's advice and tried to apply her aura to all sorts of objects. During her class when Professor Port went off on another long tangent, Yang was fiddling with her pencil and decided to see if she could break it. Rather than use her strength, she concentrated her aura into her thumb and gently pressed against her pencil; it snapped in two like it was made of paper. When brushing her hair, she used her aura to control her brush strokes and got done in half the time. When training in the gym, she started to use her aura to pace herself and noticed how she was able to get more exercise done and felt less exhausted. On her way back to her dorm, Yang picked up a rock and tried to crush with just her aura; the rock shattered into dust. Yang was feeling proud; Ren's techniques were actually paying off.

Ren and Yang did the pancake challenge one more time. Now that she was controlling her motions via her aura, Yang was able to keep up with Ren without a problem. By the time they were done, Ren only had Yang beat by just a few pancakes.

"You've done well Yang," said Ren. "I'm impressed by how far you've come in such a short amount of time."

"But we've still got the taste test," said Yang, "and I'm still probably gonna lose."

"You know what? Let's try something different."

Ren took Yang's pancakes and quickly shuffled them with his own; now it was impossible to tell them apart. Ren served them to their teams and asked which stacks they preferred. The teams didn't know what to think, as all of them tasted exactly the same. Yang couldn't help but smile; she had matched the quality of the king of pancakes himself.

#

Later that day was their sparring class. Yang had challenged Cardin to a rematch; Cardin was more than happy to oblige.

"Don't expect me to show any mercy this time," said Cardin.

"Likewise," said Yang.

The match played out much like before. Yang had the advantage for most of the fight, but this time she kept her attacks in check and didn't try to overpower Cardin so much. Cardin was waiting for Yang to slip up so he can finish her off, but five minutes into the match, Yang was just as energetic as she was when she started, while Cardin was struggling to stay on his feet.

"Would you like to forfeit Mister Winchester?" asked Goodwitch.

"Hell no!" said Cardin. "I'm not done yet!"

"I'd take that forfeit if I was you," said Yang.

Cardin raised his mace and charged at Yang. Yang held up with left arm and blocked the mace easily with her gauntlet, then channeled all her aura into her right fist and nailed Cardin in the stomach, sending him tumbling to the ground in pain.

"The match is over," said Goodwitch. "Yang is the winner."

Yang looked up and saw her friends cheering for her victory. She looked at Ren and smiled; Ren smiled and nodded in return.


	7. Something to Prove (Penny&Velvet)

**When you've got something to prove, it's best to go out there and fight than to run away.**

Genre: Drama

#

After months of anticipation, the Vytal Festival tournament was only one week away. Thousands of students had signed up to compete, but only a small percentage would get to participate in the actual tournament. In order to qualify, the students had to pass a series of tests and preliminary matches. Everyone was excited for the chance to be competing in the tournament. Well, almost everyone. There was one student who was thinking of backing out right now.

Team CFVY were by their lockers getting their gear ready when Velvet suddenly had second thoughts and decided she wasn't going to go through with it. It really upset her team to hear this.

"Velvet darling," said Coco, "you mean to tell me you're going to come this far only to back out before it even begins?"

"I think you're just nervous," said Yatsuhashi. "Once you're out there fighting I'm sure you'll get over it."

"It isn't nervousness," said Velvet. "I can't go out there and have all those people looking...and judging..."

When Velvet thought of all the people that would be watching the fights, her ears began to flop down as if trying to hide. Coco sighed.

"I thought we'd be over this darling," said Coco. "Nobody is going to care you're a Faunus!"

"That's easy for you to say," said Velvet. "You don't know what it's like to be judged and taunted based on your race. If a Faunus like me were to compete, they would boo be out of the festival! I'm not going out there!"

"Velvet my dear, you are competing in this tournament whether you go out there yourself or I drag your butt out!"

"Easy there Coco," said Yatsuhashi. "If Velvet doesn't want to compete, that's her decision. The prelims don't start for another hour anyway. That'll give her plenty of time to change her mind."

Yatsuhashi put on his weapon and walked off. Coco gave a goodbye kiss to Velvet's cheek.

"I hope you have a change of heart darling," said Coco before leaving.

Velvet sat in the locker room alone. She grabbed her bunny ears and tried to pull them down, hoping they would stay that way, but of course they flopped right back up. Velvet knew she had the skills to qualify, but would anyone see past the ears to notice?

"Excuse me, I couldn't help but overhear you aren't competing in the tournament."

Velvet looked up and saw a ginger bobbed girl in a grey dress. Velvet hadn't seen this student before; she must have been one of the transfers from another school.

"Hello," said Velvet. "Who are you?"

"My name is Penny," said the strange girl. "What's yours?"

"Velvet, and yes, I'm not going to compete in the tournament."

"Why not? Everyone is excited for this tournament, especially me!"

"You're going to compete as well?"

"Yep! I'm combat ready!" said Penny, giving a military salute.

"Nothing personal," said Velvet, "but you don't look like the kind of girl that can put up a fight."

"That's why I'm competing! I'm going to fight in this tournament and prove just how strong I am! I don't even care about winning; I just want to show the people I know I can handle things on my own."

"That's a noble intention Penny, and I wish you the best of luck."

"Thank you, but you still haven't explained why you aren't competing. I'm sure you can do just as well!"

"My skills aren't the problem," said Velvet, pulling down her ears again.

"Then what's the problem? Is your stomach doing the thing that causes you to throw up?"

"No Penny, it's...a bit more personal than that."

"Oh my! You mean to tell me you're having...that time of the month?"

Velvet nearly fell out of her seat from Penny thinking that Velvet's problem was of the feminine variety.

"No!" said Velvet. "It's because of...these."

Velvet pointed to her bunny ears. Penny squinted as if trying to find out what was wrong with them.

"Your ears look fine to me," said Penny. "Are you worried you have fleas?"

"Penny, the ears are the problem!" said Velvet.

"I don't understand. What's wrong with your ears?"

Velvet didn't know if Penny was acting naive or was genuinely asking. "Penny, do you know what a Faunus is?"

"Of course I do. But what does that have to do with not wanting to compete?"

"Because there are people out there who hate the Faunus. They look at us and either think we're freaks or terrorists. Faunus like me are discriminated and harasssed just because we're different! If I go out there and compete, it's just going to unleash people's hate. The further I make it into this tournament, the bigger hole I dig myself into. I can't risk it."

"Velvet...that's a really bad reason not to compete. In fact, you should compete because you're a Faunus, not the other way around!"

"Weren't you listening?" asked Velvet, agitated that Penny seemingly ignored her dilemma. "If I go out there and compete-"

"You can prove you're better than them!" interrupted Penny. "You can prove that a Faunus can compete just as well as any human, android, or whatever they throw out there, possibly better! If you think people are going to make fun of you now, imagine how much they'll make fun of you for running away!"

Velvet suddenly had a realization she never thought of: What would they think of her running away? Not just the people watching, but her own teammates; the ones who looked past the ears and saw the skills and talents Velvet brought to the team? If Velvet didn't compete, she'd lose all the respect she had fought to earn this whole time.

"Velvet, when you first looked at me you thought I couldn't put up a fight. You're not the only one who takes a look at me and thinks that way. People I've met and people I've known all my life think I can't defend myself. They think I need to be protected, to let others fight for me. That's why this tournament is really important to me. If I can get far enough...no, if I can WIN the tournament, I'll finally prove to everyone I'm strong enough to fight on my own. Don't you have something to prove?"

"Of course I do," said Velvet. "I'm competing in this tournament for the same reason I became a huntress in the first place. People look down on the Faunus as if we're not equals, and then you have the White Fang committing all these atrocities as if they speak for all of us Faunus. I'm going to compete to prove that Faunus are just as strong and deserving as the humans, and that not all of us are part of some radical extremists!"

"Then let's go out there and prove ourselves!" said Penny.

Velvet gathered her belongings and headed to the opening ceremonies with Penny. The tournament organizers were giving several speeches while the potential participants stood in observance. Velvet quickly found her team and reunited with them.

"Sorry I'm late," said Velvet. Her team turned around and was happy to see her.

"Better late than never darling," said Coco. "What made you change your mind?"

"I just needed to remember why I'm here; because I've got something to prove."

"Good for you darling! Let's make it to the finals together, yes?"

"You bet!"

Velvet was more motivated than ever. The only thing that can stop her now would be an opponent who was stronger than her, but Velvet was confident she had the skills necessary to beat anyone who stood in her way. Whether against a friend or foe, a close teammate or a stranger she just met, Velvet was going to fight with everything she had, because she has something to prove.


End file.
